itical
nking
Re-designing the undergraduate
curriculum
Communication
Collaboration
21st Century
Skills
Media
Literacy
Zoe Handley & Poppy Nash
Department of Education
University of York
itical
nking
Promoting engagement and the
development of 21st century skills in skillsbased modules
Communication
Collaboration
21st Century
Skills
Media
Literacy
Zoe Handley & Poppy Nash
Department of Education
University of York
The UG
Curriculum
Key
Concepts
Disciplines
Contexts
Skills
Employability
& Enrichment
The Skills Strand
Skills
Research Methods
Dissertation
This theme focuses on skills for learning about education, skills for reading and
undertaking educational research, and transferable skills. Skills developed
through this theme include analytical, problem solving, critical thinking,
communication, presentation, ICT, research literacy, data analysis, and data
presentation …
Feedback
Introduction to skills
“Topics could be done/covered in our own time rather than a 2 hour lecture. A lot of
dragging out of small topics”
Research methods
“I just found this module very dull” “It can be quite boring but I understand it is
necessary”
Educational Research Methods:
Current module
Aut.
Spr.
• Lectures and seminars featuring mini projects
• Formative: Multiple-choice exam
Sum.
• Lectures and seminars featuring mini projects
• Summative: 2500 word research proposal
Educational Research Methods:
Innovations
• 21st Century Skills (Dede, 2010; Humburg & van der Velden, 2013)
– Group projects
– Presentations
• Research-based teaching (Healey, 2005; Pfeffer & Roglin, 2012; Robertson
& Kingsley, 2013; Waite & Davis, 2006; Winn, 1995)
– Student-led projects
• Research-oriented teaching (Healey, 2005; Pfeffer & Roglin, 2012)
– Lectures on advanced topics
– Follow up research talks from staff and PhD students
• Assessment tactics (Brown et al., 1997; Gibbs, 2006; Jessop et al. 2013)
– Multiple-choice exam
– Group student-led research projects
– Research proposal
Educational Research Methods:
Revised module
Aut.
• Lectures and seminars featuring mini projects
• Formative: Multiple-choice online exam
• Summative: Multiple-choice online exam
Spr.
• Lectures featuring research talks from staff and PhD students
• Seminars featuring student-led group research projects
• Formative: Reflective blog
Sum.
• Summative: Group presentation on student-led research project
• Seminars: Reading group
• Summative: 2500 word research proposal
Communicating and Presenting
Educational Ideas: Previous module
1
• Press releases
2
• Oral presentations
3
• Poster presentations
4
• Examining educational discourse
Communicating and Presenting
Educational Ideas: Innovations
• Communicating and Presenting Educational
Ideas
– Scaffolding (Blatchford et al., 2003)
• Group projects
• Presentations
– 21st Century Skills (Dede, 2010; Humburg & van
der Velden, 2013)
• IT Skills
Communicating and Presenting
Educational Ideas: Current module
1
• Poster presentations + team building
2
• Oral presentations + team building
3
• IT Skills + team building
4
• Press releases + team building
•Summative: Group vodcast
Marking:
Criteria for presentations (pass standard)
• Good use of voice, i.e.
– Mostly clear, well-paced verbal delivery at suitable volume for the
environment
– Somewhat lacking in variability of tone and expression
• Audience is engaged by a number of devices which may include eye
contact, reference to shared experiences, written and visual materials,
attention to differences in audience (e.g. researcher, policy maker, teacher,
parent, child)
• The presentation consists almost entirely of reading from a script or the
slides or the slides or the slides or the slides with no reference to audience
either directly or in the content
• Appropriate choice and use of supporting materials and media e.g. Video
extract, tape recording, OHP, powerpoint, slides etc. But may not include
pictoral/diagrammatic material.
• Supporting media are of appropriate length; they support and do not
replace the speaker.
Marking:
Group work
• You will receive an individual mark for your contribution to
the group work
• Your individual marks will be calculated as follows:
– The marker will assign a mark to the presentation using the
marking criteria
– This mark will then be multiplied by the number of students in
the group
– Your group will then be asked to decide how many of the marks
should be allocated to each member of the group
– Your will be asked to take minutes of your group meetings and
make a log of your contributions to the presentation
(Gibbs, 1994, p. 12; University of York Guide to Assessment)
Our experience with Skills so far …
• Attendance
– 58 % in 2012/2013
– 79 % in 2013/2014
• Feedback
– 55 % Excellent or good in
2012/2013 (response = 43%)
– 7 % Excellent or good in
2013/2014 (response = 66%)
• Quality of presentations
– Most demonstrated
presentation skills, but not
argumentation skills
– Many cooperated but did not
collaborate
“Some of the activities seemed really
patronising, such as how to make a
poster and how to insert images into
PowerPoint. I think the content made
people not want to come from lectures,
as the vast majority of us already knew
how to do these things”
“I feel that rather then spending 8 weeks
on qualitative and quantitative research,
then crammed stats into 8 weeks and
then done 4 weeks on things we already
knew, we should have done term 1 and
2's work in the first 4 weeks of term one
and then worked on stats”
Communicating and Presenting
Educational Ideas: Future directions
• Further evaluation (with Dr. Velda Elliott)
– Pre- and post-module questionnaires and focus groups
– Presentation, group work and IT skills self-efficacy
• Actions
– Consider how skills fits into the programmes as a whole
– Consider integrating skills ‘just in time’ across the
curriculum
and/or
– Consider a ‘deep-end’ approach in term 1
– Re-design tasks to require collaboration
Educational Research Methods:
Future directions
• Evaluation (with Dr. Lynda Dunlop)
– Natural experiment
– Questionnaires (Q) and focus groups (F)
– Motivation for research methods, dissertation self-efficacy, experience of
group work, and experience of dissertation.
Year 2
Year 3
ERM
Lectures
Q
ERM
Lectures
Q
ERM
Student-led
Projects
Q
Dissertation
Q
F
Q
F
Dissertation
Thank you!
Contact:
zoe.handley@york.ac.uk
References
•
•
•
•
•
Blatchford, P., Kutnick, P., Baines, R., & Galton, M. (2003). Toward a social
pedagogy of classroom group work. International Journal of Educational Research,
39(1-2), 153-172.
Brown, G., Bull, J., & Pendlebury, M. (1997). Assessing student learning in higher
education. London: Routledge.
Dede, C. (2010). Comparing Frameworks for 21st Century Skills. In J. Bellanca & R.
Brandt (eds.), 21st Century Skills (pp. 51-76). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Gibbs, G. (2006). How assessment frames learning. In Bryan, C. & Clegg, K. (eds.).
Innovative assessment in higher education (pp. 23-36). London: Routledge.
Healey, M. (2005). Linking research and teaching exploring disciplinary spaces and
the role of inquiry-based learning, in Barnett, R (ed.). Reshaping the university:
new relationships between research, scholarship and teaching (pp.30-42).
Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press.
References
•
•
•
•
•
Humburg, M., & van der Velden, R. (2013). What is expected of higher education
graduates in the 21st century? Research Memorandum 2013/13, Research Centre
for Education and the Labour Market (ROA). Forthcoming in: J. Buchanan, D.
Finegold, K. Mayhew, & C. Warhurst (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Skills and Training.
Oxford: Oxford University Press
Gibbs, G. (1994). Learning in teams: A tutor guide. Oxford: The Oxford Centre for
Staff Development.
Jessop, T., El Hakim, Y. and Gibbs, G. (2013) The whole is greater than the sum of
its parts: a large-scale study of students' learning in response to different
programme assessment patterns. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education,
39(1), 73-88.
Pfeffer, C.A. & Rogalin, C.L. (2012). Three strategies for teaching research
methods: a case study. Teaching Sociology 40(4), 368-376.
Robertson, J. & Kingsley, B. (2013). “For a boring subject, you made it really quite
interesting!” Teaching research methods to encourage the transition from
‘reluctant scientist’ to psychologist. HEA Social Sciences Annual Conference
Liverpool 2013.
References
•
•
Waite, S. & Davis, B. (2006). Developing undergraduate research skills in a faculty
of education: motivation through collaboration. Higher education research and
development. 25(4), 403-419.
Winn, S. (1995). Learning by doing: teaching research methods through student
participation in a commissioned research project. Studies in higher education
20(2), 203-214.